Expert: Ali - 3/5/2009

Question
I have alot cats and two have had two liters but today another one of my cats had a liter and she didn't clean on of the babies it is still alive I have checked on it. But she doesn't want anything to do with it. My question is how can I clean it and should I take it away from her and take care of it...Please let me know.

Answer
Cass,

Unfortunately sometimes we just don't know why queens will reject kittens. In some cases it's because they can sense a congenital defect that would mean the kitten wouldn't survive long anyway. You could certainly try taking the kitten and hand rearing it, but be prepared it may die without any obvious reason. If you are going to hand rear the kitten you should be forewarned that it's time and labor intensive, but well worth it if the kitten survives. You will need several new oral syringes which you can find in the baby aisle of any pharmacy. You should also invest in a kitten milk replacer such as KMR, Just Born or Mammalac and mix it according to the directions. It's very important to keep track of the weight of orphaned kittens so a scale that measures in grams up to two pounds would also be a good tool to have on hand. Kitten formula should be fed when all four of the kitten's paws are facing the floor, feeding them on their backs can cause them to choke and possibly inhale formula. I generally feed orphaned kittens in my care on demand which means that they will cry about every hour and a half to two hours to be fed. You'll need to burp the kitten around half way through the feeding by gently sitting the baby up and tapping on his back, you'll know when you've been successful. Mother cats normally take care of the needs of their kittens when it comes to toileting and you can try mom to see if she's willing to do that part of this kitten's care, if she isn't you will need to use cotton balls or strips of terry cloth gently moistened with warm water. I find that if you keep things as close to how mom would do them as possible it's easier to toilet the kittens so I recommend that you start by wiping the kitten's face, work back along the back and sides of the kitten and when that's done you'll want to gently flip the kitten onto his back and hold him in place with two fingers while you wipe under his chin, his chest and belly. When you wipe the genital area be sure to wipe from genitals to bottom as this will prevent fecal bacteria from causing a bladder infection. Getting kittens to poop this way can be difficult, but stick with it because otherwise their bowels will empty on an overflow basis which isn't good for the kitten. If you find that the kitten has diarrhea or loose stools you can add a tbsp or so of plain full fat yogurt to the formula, this will provide the kitten with probiotic cultures normally found within a mammal's digestive tract. The main things to make sure of are that you keep the kitten fed, dry and warm, nature will determine the rest. Good luck, I'd be interested in hearing how things turn out.